TYPEWRITER

   FROM SAMPATH’S DESK:

 

TYPEWRITER

Much as we think of the manual typewriter as a thing of the past, we forget that a part of it continues to live with us today in the form of the QWERTY keyboard. For well over a hundred years since its invention by Christopher Latham Sholes in 1867, it remained as an essential communication tool. Through several transformations, it was a perfect bridge between the manuscript age and the computer age.

   

My tryst with the typewriter began in the early 1970s when I joined a typewriting institute in Triplicane,  Chennai. I was given a damn old machine on which I had to hammer the key-caps – a, s, d and f – in quick succession, repeatedly. The manager-cum-master of the institute used to tell us that we wouldn’t get a better machine to work on unless and until we achieved perfection at each stage of our typewriting learning sessions. He was a hard nut to crack. One had to sweat it out to prove his/her mettle.

   

The typewriter allotted to me was an ancient and antique-like one with frayed paint and keys extracted from old machines that had given up the ghost. While typing, some keys would become loose and fall to the ground, and I had to frantically chase and recover them before fixing them back in place. After one got familiar with the keyboard, he/she would be given exercise WORK-SHEETS to type. Each assignment would be closely monitored. Once the initial exercises were completed to the satisfaction of the master, we were ushered into what used to be called the ‘speed’ stage. There would be stiff competition among us to impress the master with our speed, perfection, and neat execution to get a better typewriter.

   

Once in employment, a typist or stenographer was required to give an impeccable and impressive performance on a manual typewriter. Irrespective of one’s performance in the Lower or Higher Typewriting examinations, one had to prove his/her worth again and again to please the boss. Some persnickety and fastidious bosses would demand a few drafts before settling for the final ‘fair copy’.

  

The advent of the electric typewriter, of course, took the labour out of the work, but the feather touch it needed was difficult to master for typists reared on old hard-touch Remingtons. Then came the electronic typewriters with their memory fields for texts, formats, etc., which facilitated editing any number of times. It was a great relief indeed! However, electronic typewriters with allied peripherals and accessories were very costly. The onward transition to computers with their myriad mind-boggling word processing facilities completely re-drew the contours of document preparation and left the manual typewriter on the verge of extinction. However, the clickety-clack of the typewriter ruled the roost for more than a century.

     

(R.SAMPATH)

   

This article was published in the 'Mindspace' column of THE INDIAN EXPRESS dated 10.1.2018 with the caption 'WHO CAN FORGET THE REMINGTON?'.